Immunophenotypic analysis of hematogones in patients with hematological malignancies

Abstract

We studied immunophenotypic analysis of hematogones by flow cytometry. A total of 102 specimens from 93 patients with acute leukemia (52 specimens), myelodysplastic syndromes (4), or malignant lymphoma (46) were analyzed between April and August, 2011. Hematogones were detected in 55 specimens and highly identified in patients with acute myeloid leukemia in remission and B cell lymphoma. Stage 1 (CD34⁺CD20^-) and stage 2/3 (CD34^-CD20⁺) were detected in 9.9% and 52.7%, respectively. In addition, the intermediate type (CD34⁺CD20⁺) was identified in 37.4%. All specimens of stage 3 in bright CD45 expression were positive for CD5 and included CD5⁺CD23^-CD11c^-, 11.1%, CD5⁺CD23⁺CD11c^-, 85.2%, and CD5⁺CD23⁺CD11c⁺, 3.7%. These findings suggest that hematogones with unreported immunophenotypes may exist and the appearance of hematogones in hematologic malignancies may be relatively frequent.